Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

A study examined the school and labor market experiences of students who either are in or have participated in vocational education programs. To formulate their conclusions, the researchers involved in the study analyzed a subset of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Experience--Youth Cohort. These data indicate that students who participated in vocational education to a fairly extensive degree were less likely to drop out than were others. Most vocational students worked while in high school, earning an average of $67 per week for 24 hours of work at a job that was most likely self-obtained. Working did not seem to affect the academic performance of these students; both their grades and their class rank were at least equal to those of their nonworking counterparts. Once they had graduated from high school, these vocational participants were more likely to be active in the labor force--either working or looking for work--than graduates with less vocational concentration. The typical female vocational graduate had a relatively high-prestige clerical job that demanded moderate use of her intelligence. The average male graduate, on the other hand, tended to choose craft or agricultural employment and was more likely than his nonvocational counterparts to work for himself. (MN)

Bibliography Citation

Desy, Jeanne. High School Vocational Education Experiences: In School and in the Labor Market. Research and Development Series No 244. Columbus OH: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, The Ohio State University, 1984..